The report, published Oct. 23, was paired with an online panel discussion featuring Robin Lake, director of the and a group of high school students who shared their perspectives about generative AI. They recommended that schools create policies around generative AI and incorporate it into their everyday learning while being aware of the challenges that come with it.   

Schools have to decide whether to take the leap and invest in these tools or risk missing opportunities to improve instruction, said Lake.

鈥淲hether we like it or not, AI is our future, and our young people will be inheriting it,鈥� she said. . 鈥淪o we need to act. The question is really whether our education systems will prepare them to shape that future, or be shaped by it 鈥� that’s why we think it’s so important that we look at the data carefully and think very intentionally about how we need to make” next steps.

For 22 years, Project Tomorrow has published its Speak Up National Report about technology in education. This year鈥檚 polled 29,461 middle and high school students, 5,025 parents, 7,127 teachers and 3,495 administrators about AI.

Here are three takeaways from the report and briefing, which included student panelists Ian Son, a senior at Redondo Union High School in California; Neha Palla, a senior at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Kentucky; and Arnav Hingorani, a junior at Desert Mountain High School in Arizona.

Students think generative AI tools should play a central role in their everyday learning

Today鈥檚 students already consider AI part of their education, said Julie Evans, Project Tomorrow鈥檚 CEO and moderator of the panel.

鈥淭hey don’t see it as a bystander, as [something] on the side,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his isn’t like a project we’re going to do with AI today but you’re not allowed to use it for other things. The students actually see it as part of their entire learning process. We need to catch up and think about what makes sense.鈥�

The report found that 68% of students are familiar with different types of generative AI tools. Two-thirds of middle schoolers and 73% of high schoolers said they should have access to these tools in school, while 61% of parents and 58% of teachers agreed.

Palla said she has used generative AI this year to help her understand linear algebra.

鈥淗aving [Google] Gemini or ChatGPT provide explanations behind those linear concepts is really useful because a lot of those conceptual explanations are not present whenever you do a Google search,鈥� she said.

The top ways students want to use generative AI for school include brainstorming ideas about assignments, analyzing notes, getting feedback on writing, accessing tutoring outside of school and summarizing text, according to the report.

About two-thirds of students said AI use in the classroom exposes them to new ideas. Other benefits cited include preparing students for college and future careers, making learning more efficient and saving time. 

鈥淔or example, if I’m in a physics class and I just really don’t understand a concept, I could talk to ChatGPT,鈥� Son said. 鈥淚 could talk basically anything through generative AI, because it could imitate and it could role-play anyone. So just using it in those different ways has just been super helpful, because it’s almost like talking to any type of expert at any time during the day.鈥�

Students are aware of concerns about incorporating AI in the classroom

The report found that when using AI at school, students are most concerned about misinformation, people using it to harm others, false accusations of cheating and data privacy.

鈥淚f I’m at school and I’m pulling out ChatGPT, for example, I’m automatically going to be accused of cheating or trying to cheat around my work or being lazy,鈥� Son said. 鈥淏ut I think a lot of the time when I’m using AI, I’m using it to enhance my learning. Most of us aren’t trying to cheat, but we’re actually trying to use AI to help us.鈥�

More than 40% of high school students and 80% of parents said the possibility of false cheating accusations was a serious concern for them, according to the survey. Nearly 90% of teachers are worried about their students cheating when using AI.

Hingorani said that when he tries to use AI for school, he鈥檚 cautious about the misinterpretations the tools can give when producing information. 

鈥�AI will make up data. It’ll make up a math problem and how to do it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think [when] using AI all the time and seeing how it works, you start to get an idea of the right way to use artificial intelligence to enhance your learning rather than just getting an answer or perhaps even getting a wrong answer.鈥�

One of Palla鈥檚 top concerns is overusing generative AI while doing schoolwork and losing key skills in the process.

鈥淚’m scared that I’ll rely more on AI than my own thinking,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 feel like critical thinking is something that AI could replace. I feel like every single time I encounter a problem, I’ll just automatically go to AI and see if they have an answer, rather than thinking for myself.鈥�

Schools are lagging with implementation and guidelines

Among schools that have adopted systemic AI use, most use it only for small, isolated tasks instead of expanding it to classroom activities or lessons, according to a July CRPE .

鈥淪chools are focusing really narrowly on plagiarism detection or saving teachers a few minutes of grading time,鈥� Lake said. 鈥淣ot to diminish the importance of that, but what we’re seeing as a missed opportunity is that they’re not able to focus on the possibilities for using AI to truly transform learning.鈥�

Project Tomorrow鈥檚 report found that teachers鈥� lack of familiarity with generative AI causes them to avoid using the tools in class.More than half of teachers said they haven鈥檛 had any discussions with their students about AI, and only 13% are very confident in using the tools for their own productivity or to advance student learning.

Hingorani said that in his school district, Scottsdale United, teachers don鈥檛 know how to address questions about AI because administrators and policymakers haven鈥檛 created guidelines around its use. 

鈥淪o many teachers are like, 鈥業 don’t know what the current policy is,鈥� 鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think that’s the fundamental issue a lot of districts are facing right now.鈥�

Only 15% of teachers in the report said their school districts provide enough professional development for effective use of AI in the classroom. About 61% of students were unsure whether their school has AI policies.

鈥淚 think teachers are automatically compelled to have a stigma toward it,鈥� Palla said. 鈥淚 think providing resources to allow teachers to learn about it will make them more willing to integrate those tools into a classroom.鈥�

Yet these cuts are only the latest symptom of a deeper problem: The special education system is failing. Fifty years ago, the (IDEA) was a revolutionary step forward that mandated a free, appropriate public education for students with disabilities, tailored to their individual needs. It has since hardened into a compliance-driven exercise that leaves most of the students it serves without the educational support they need to succeed in school or life.

We understand these failures better than most, having watched our own children鈥檚 struggles compound due to their schools鈥� failures to provide the 鈥渂asics,鈥� such as a high-quality curriculum, evidence-based instruction, orderly classrooms and a little extra academic support. These are the same things millions of students without identified disabilities also need 鈥� but that neither the general nor special education system reliably delivers.

The result is a crisis that long predates the current funding fight, because special education was never designed to help students achieve grade-level expectations. It is a system that prioritizes sorting children into diagnostic categories over improving student learning. Every year, more students are labeled, more money is invested, and yet the results remain the same: Millions of children unable to read, write or calculate proficiently. The problem isn鈥檛 too little special education, it鈥檚 that special education as we know it does not work.

That鈥檚 why the Center on Reinventing Public Education has launched a new project, , that aims to generate conversation and solutions around meeting the needs of students who struggle in school 鈥� one grounded in evidence, transparency and a willingness to question the faulty assumptions that have shaped special education for a half-century.

Part of this initiative is the , the first-ever 50-state digital record of rates of students identified as needing services since 1976. The data document America鈥檚 increased reliance on special education to address learning and behavioral differences that are more common than those that originally inspired Congress to pass IDEA. But giving more students access hasn’t solved the core problem: Eligibility is based on subjective determinations of disability (something that can鈥檛 be measured) rather than demonstration of student need (something that can). As a result, students鈥� access to special education depends on the local policies and practices used in their schools, creating a huge disparity in services depending on where they happen to live.

While these findings illuminate longstanding inequities, they also open up new opportunities to act. To encourage deeper exploration, CRPE is inviting educators, researchers and advocates to , uncover new patterns and propose ideas for a better system. Selected participants will receive financial support to develop deeper analyses that can help policymakers and practitioners design a new generation of interventions.

Those new insights and fresh approaches could help reimagine the current system from the ground up. Instead of sorting students into rigid categories, schools could respond flexibly to their needs. Instead of disconnected experiences across general and special education, there could be a continuum of evidence-based supports. Instead of investing in gatekeeping, legislators could use analyses of this new dataset to justify allocating resources directly to the instruction and tools students need to succeed.

None of this can happen so long as advocates hunker down in defense of a program that is failing the students it was designed to serve. Instead, is an attempt to give advocates, families and educators the tools to see the system as it truly is and imagine what it could become. Invention can offer hope in the face of despair, abundance in place of scarcity and power to the powerless. Those are the resources disability advocates brought to Congress 50 years ago. They can be tapped again to advance the interests of children with disabilities in today鈥檚 challenging political climate.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education鈥檚 latest notes the number of teacher preparation program graduates ready to teach math fell by 36% from 2012 to 2020, dovetailing with a decline in student achievement. While the study released today did not prove causality, the link, researchers say, seems clear.聽

鈥淗igh-quality teachers matter,鈥� CRPE director Robin Lake said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the most powerful in-school factor in kids鈥� learning experience and it鈥檚 something people are not talking about enough.鈥� 

At the same time, a topic that has been widely discussed 鈥� the debate over whether explicit direct instruction trumps a more student-centered learning approach 鈥� has left some educators unsure of how to teach the subject, researchers found.

鈥淭he math wars are as old as education itself,鈥� said CRPE senior fellow Alexander Kurz. 鈥淭hat debate is alive and well through the science of math. As an educator, you are caught in the crossfire.鈥� 

The result: Nearly 4 in 10 eighth graders failed to achieve even the most basic level of math proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, such as calculating the area of a circle or multiplying fractions, the study notes. The most recent NAEP scores, released just last week, showed the nation鈥檚 12th graders doing worse in math than any senior class of the past generation.

While those scores were the first to come out for seniors since COVID, the study鈥檚 authors say the problem long predates the pandemic. They note that math performance in U.S. public schools has been declining for more than a decade and achievement gaps are at historic highs.

Girls, low-income kids, Black and Hispanic students, children with disabilities and multilingual learners are struggling most, CRPE reports. Citing NAEP data, the report notes that since 1990, the gap between the highest- and lowest-scoring students has grown 18% wider among eighth graders and more than 8.5% wider among fourth graders.

In addition to the teacher shortage and instructional quagmire, CRPE cites a number of other factors it believes contribute to abysmal student performance pre- and post- pandemic, including that many states’ test scores are inflated, obscuring results, 鈥渆specially for different student groups.鈥�

The report, the fourth of its kind, found that in , for example, students鈥� average math grade point average jumped 0.34 points from 2019 to 2021, triple the increase of the prior eight years. 

In , the report notes, math proficiency dropped 11 points on state exams while A and B grades on local courses declined by only 3 points. 

鈥淎 national study from 2021 to 2023 found that 57% of grades didn鈥檛 align with student knowledge as measured by tests, and two-thirds of those misaligned grades were inflated, most often for underserved groups,鈥� the CRPE report reads. 鈥淎CT data show rising GPAs, especially in math, despite falling test scores. By 2021, even students scoring in the 25th percentile were graduating with B averages or better.鈥�

The study found, too, schools are overly rigid, tracking students and hindering their success in the subject.

鈥淢iddle school math-tracking acts as math predestination, putting some students on a track to take Algebra I in eighth grade or earlier,鈥� the report reads. 鈥淟ess-advantaged students are less likely to be placed in advanced math courses, even when they demonstrate readiness.鈥�

Joel Rose, co-founder and chief executive officer of New Classrooms, a nonprofit that focuses on student-centered learning, called the report spot on, adding schools don鈥檛 account for children learning at different speeds. 

鈥淭here is really only one track, the grade-level track,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you stay on it and never fall behind, you do fine. The problem is most kids fall behind for one reason or another and there are not any viable paths for them to catch back up.鈥�

It鈥檚 because of this, he said, that math education is turning into 鈥渙ur nation’s social sorting machine.鈥� Students who don鈥檛 catch on to the subject will find a whole series of career pathways closed off to them, he said. 

But all of these problems are solvable, CRPE contends, noting that states like and school districts like New Jersey鈥檚 and , have made replicable gains. 

Alabama is the only state where fourth graders scored higher in the subject than they did in 2019, prior to the pandemic. 

Karen Anderson, director of the state education department鈥檚 Office of Mathematics Improvement, said Alabama has worked hard to align classroom lessons with state standards and to use evidence-based practices and high-quality instructional materials to help all students 鈥� no matter their zip code or performance level.

鈥淲e want to make sure we are using instructional strategies that actually provide results,鈥� Anderson said. 鈥淲e also want to make sure we know what students know 鈥� and what they don鈥檛 know. And, when we see students who need help, we provide assistance immediately.鈥�

CRPE recommends schools stop poo-pooing direct instruction 鈥� in which teachers demonstrate or explain procedures and concepts. Likewise, it concluded teachers need clear guidance on how to balance conceptual understanding with procedural fluency 鈥� in addition to real-time data to identify gaps and better structure their lessons.

Melodie Baker, founder and executive director of , which aims to use research to empower communities of color, has worked in mathematics for decades. She said robust teacher preparation at the elementary school level is critical for student success.

鈥淭he lack of emphasis on math in elementary is a big issue,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or example, teacher prep programs spend far more time on early literacy than math.鈥�

But they are of equal importance, Baker said.  

CRPE concluded states should consider better pay, team-teaching models and math specialists as a means to address the math teacher shortage. 

In terms of improving the student experience, it advises schools to adopt 鈥渇lexible pathways with multiple on-ramps, automatic acceleration, and no lower-track dead ends.鈥�

Based on their conversations with students, CRPE concluded that schools need to better serve children who require more time to understand math concepts.

鈥淥ne thing I don’t like is when I ask a teacher a question because I don’t understand it, and then they make me feel like I’m a bother and I really shouldn’t ask more questions,鈥� an 11th grader from Connecticut told CRPE researchers in 2022. 鈥淎nd that prevents me from learning. And I hated that because I actually want to know.鈥� 

The student鈥檚 claims correspond with what CRPE found: Schools are regularly missing opportunities to address academic problems head-on. 

And while the federal Every Student Succeeds Act explicitly requires states to develop a concise and easily understandable online report card, most don鈥檛 meet the standard. CRPE found just 18 break down math achievement and growth data by student subgroups 鈥渋n a way that we thought was clear and understandable.鈥�

Only Illinois, the report notes, earned the highest rating in this category by providing comprehensive math performance and opportunity data that CRPE thought most parents would be able to use and understand.

Most districts try to prevent chronic absenteeism through early warning systems that identify students who miss too much school, according to the report by . Districts also conduct home visits, call families when students are out and hire staff who specifically address attendance. 

But those efforts meet with pushback from parents. Some say, for example, that letters sent home nudging students to attend school are 鈥渢oo harsh.鈥� 

鈥淧arents鈥� overall feelings about the importance of school have changed,鈥� said Jessica Hull,  executive director of communication and community engagement for the Roseville City School District, outside Sacramento. Chronic absenteeism in the district has dropped from its pandemic high point of 26% to 11%, but that is still roughly double its pre-COVID rate.

Some students with family members outside of the U.S. can be gone for weeks at a time. Others frequently miss Fridays and Mondays, while some older children are tasked with caring for younger siblings. 

鈥淚’m generally a very positive person,鈥� Hull said. 鈥淏ut I don’t know that we’ll really dramatically change those things.鈥�

The report comes as more states are showing leadership on the issue. On Monday, Attendance Works, an advocacy and research organization, announced that have committed to cutting chronic absenteeism in half over five years in response to a challenge it issued in July along with the American Enterprise Institute and EdTrust. Chronic absenteeism peaked at 28% nationally in the 2021-22 school year. The Rand survey of nearly 200 district leaders estimates that rates dropped to about 19% last school year, but that鈥檚 still above the pre-COVID level of 15%. 

In a statement, Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, said states are 鈥渦niquely positioned to alert everyone to the size of this challenge.鈥� 

But the Rand report suggests district leaders feel a sense of urgency to reach families with children who miss the most school now.

鈥淭he leaders we interviewed were frustrated because there are chronically absent students for whom their interventions aren鈥檛 working,鈥� said Lydia Rainey, a researcher with the 

Center on Reinventing Public Education, which with Rand on the survey. 鈥淪ome of the leaders had ideas for new programs to try; others were at a loss for what to do next. No one talked about giving up.鈥�

The authors urged districts to emphasize approaches that foster stronger relationships between students and staff 鈥� an ingredient that even discouraged leaders say is the key to more successful strategies. Parents need to understand how poor attendance impacts their children鈥檚 academic performance, researchers said, and districts should collect better evidence on which methods make students want to come to school.

The U.S. Department of Education last week encouraged similar strategies in for low-performing schools identified as part of states鈥� accountability systems. The public has until Oct. 4 to provide comments on the draft. In addition, a recently posted  from the Department of Transportation offers other ideas, like teaching students to if transportation is unavailable.

In its effort to address the problem, the Roseville City district supplies gas cards to families who can鈥檛 afford to fill up and encourages transient and homeless families to transfer schools if their living situations have changed. 

鈥淥ne school that works at the beginning of the year might not be the school that works at the end of the year,鈥� Hull said.

Lines of communication 

School leaders sometimes modify district-level practices to keep the connections with parents positive. 

In central Wyoming鈥檚 Fremont County district, for example, home-to-school liaisons call families when students miss too much school. But Katie Law, principal of Arapahoe Charter High School in the district, changed the title for these liaisons to student advocate 鈥� 鈥渟o families see that it is an attempt to help.鈥� 

To comply with state laws and tribal codes, the district also sends letters and truancy citations to families of chronically absent students. But Law said those messages are often counterproductive.

鈥淭his just made relationships and trust between the school and the parents worse and led to students dropping out entirely,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t wasn’t effective.鈥�  

Law has tried some of the conventional strategies Rand studied, but she has also added some home-grown ideas, like handing out prepaid phone cards so she can text students when they鈥檙e not in class.

鈥淲e can open those lines of communication instead of trying to find four different phone numbers that might be disconnected,鈥� she said. 

Food is another incentive. Once a month, the school holds a community day, including a 鈥済iant potluck.鈥� Last week, students and staff made pancakes and volunteered at the local food bank. 

鈥淜ids start to feel that somebody’s depending on them the way they depend on other people,鈥� Law said. 鈥淚t shows them that accountability.鈥�

鈥楾ricky鈥� questions

That mixture of approaches demonstrates how schools can connect with students socially. The 鈥渘ext phase鈥� is ensuring families see an academic payoff as well, said Liz Cohen, policy director at FutureEd, a research center at Georgetown University. She recently examined a to reduce chronic absenteeism in Rhode Island.

鈥淒o students, especially high school students, feel that going to school has value? Is it a good use of their time?鈥� she asked. 鈥淲e have to start tackling the tricky and sticky questions of what happens within the school day, academically, that makes it worth it for students to stay in those buildings.鈥�

As part of the Rhode Island effort, the state posts data showing how chronic absenteeism affects the percentage of students meeting math and reading expectations. The state also operates a that is updated every night and gives the public a real-time picture of absenteeism rates.

This year鈥檚 data is promising, with the rate declining from almost 29% in 2022-23 to less than 25%. 

Nearby Connecticut, which publishes on chronic absenteeism at the district and school level, has seen a decline from 20% in 2022-23 to 17.7%. 

But few states offer such timely, localized data, and most don鈥檛 even release statewide figures until October or later.

That鈥檚 part of the problem, Cohen said.

鈥淭his should be unacceptable,鈥� she said, 鈥済iven the agreement on how urgent this problem is.鈥�

Or is it, perhaps, both?

Two new reports, coincidentally released on the same day last week, offer markedly different visions of the emerging field: One argues that schools need forward-thinking policies for equitable distribution of AI across urban, suburban and rural communities. The other suggests they need something more basic: a bracing primer on what AI is and isn鈥檛, what it鈥檚 good for and how it can all go horribly wrong.

A new report by the , a non-partisan think tank at Arizona State University, advises educators to take a more active role in how AI evolves, saying they must articulate to ed tech companies in a clear, united voice what they want AI to do for students. 

The report recommends that a single organization work with school districts to tell ed tech providers what AI tools they want, warning that if 18,000 school districts send 鈥渄iffuse signals鈥� about their needs, the result will be 鈥渃rap.鈥�

It also says educators must work more closely with researchers and ed tech companies in an age of quickly evolving AI technologies.

鈥淚f districts won’t share data with researchers 鈥� ed tech developers are saying they’re having trouble 鈥� then we have a big problem in figuring out what works,鈥� CRPE Director Robin Lake said in an interview.

The report urges everyone, from teachers to governors, to treat AI as a disruptive but possibly constructive force in classrooms. It warns of already-troubling inequities in how AI is employed in schools, with suburban school districts more than as their urban and rural counterparts to train teachers about AI.

The findings, which grew out of an April convening of more than 60 public and private officials, paint AI as a development akin to extreme weather and increasing political extremism, one that will almost certainly have wide-ranging effects on schools. It urges educators to explore how other school districts, states and even other nations are tackling their huge post-pandemic educational challenges with 鈥渘ovel鈥� AI solutions.

For instance, in Gwinnett County, Ga., educators started looking at AI-enabled learning as far back as 2017. They鈥檝e since created an AI Learning Framework that aligns with the district鈥檚 鈥減ortrait of a graduate,鈥� designed a three-course AI and career and technical education curriculum pathway with the state and launched a new school that integrates AI across disciplines. 

Lake pointed to models in states like Indiana, which is offering 鈥渋ncentives for experimentation,鈥� such as a recent invitation to develop . 鈥淚t allows a structure for districts to say, ‘Yes, here’s what I want to do.’ 鈥�

But she also said states need to put guardrails on the experimentation to avoid situations such as that of Los Angeles Unified School District, which in June took its heavily hyped, $6 million AI chatbot offline after the tech firm that built it lost its CEO and shed most of its employees. 

鈥淵ou can’t eliminate all risk 鈥� that’s just impossible,鈥� Lake said. 鈥淏ut we can do a much better job of creating an environment where districts can experiment and hold student interests.鈥�

AI 鈥榓utomates cognition鈥�

By contrast, the report by , a newly formed Austin, Texas-based think tank, starts with a startling assertion: Generative AI in education is not inevitable and may actually be a passing phase.

鈥�We shouldn’t assume that it will be ubiquitous,鈥� said the group鈥檚 founder, Benjamin Riley. 鈥淲e should question whether we want it to be ubiquitous.鈥�

The report warns of the inherent hazards of using AI for bedrock tasks like lesson planning and tutoring 鈥� and questions whether it even has a place in instruction at all, given its ability to hallucinate, mislead and basically outsource student thinking.

Riley is a longtime advocate for the role of cognitive science in K-12 education 鈥� he founded , which sought to raise awareness of learning science among teachers college deans. He said that what he and his colleagues have seen of AI in education makes them skeptical it鈥檚 going to be as groundbreaking and disruptive as the participants in CRPE鈥檚 convening believe. 

鈥淚 profoundly question the premise, which is that we actually know that this technology is improving learning outcomes or other important student outcomes at this point,鈥� he said in an interview. 鈥淚 don’t think [Lake] has the evidence for that. I don’t think anybody has any evidence for that, for no other reason than this technology is hardly old enough to be able to make that determination.鈥�

By its very nature, generative AI is a tool that 鈥渁utomates cognition鈥� for those who use it. 鈥淚t makes it so you don’t have to think as much. If you don’t have to think as much, you don’t have to learn as much.鈥�

Riley recently in the ed tech world by suggesting that schools should slow down their adoption of generative AI. He took Khan Academy to task for promoting its AI-powered Khanmigo chatbot, which has been known to . It also engages students in what he terms 鈥渁n illusion of a conversation.鈥�

Technology like AI displays 鈥渏ust about the worst quality I can imagine鈥� for an educator, he said, invoking the cognitive scientist Gary Marcus, who has said generative AI is 鈥渇requently wrong, never in doubt.鈥�

Co-authored by Riley and University of Illinois education policy scholar Paul Bruno, the report urges educators to, in a sense, take a deep breath and more carefully consider the capabilities of LLMs specifically and AI more generally. Its four sections are set off by four question-and-answer headings that seek to put the technology in its place: 

• Do large-language models learn the way that humans do? No.
• Can large-language models reason? Not like humans.
• Does AI make the content we teach in schools obsolete? No.
• Will large-language models become smarter than humans? No one knows.

Actually, Riley said, AI may well be inevitable in schools, but not in the way most people believe.

鈥淲ill everybody use it for something?鈥� he said. 鈥淧robably. But I just don’t know that those 鈥榮omethings鈥� are going to be all that relevant to what matters at the core of education.鈥� Instead they could help with the more mundane tasks of scheduling, grades and the like.

Notably, Riley and Bruno confront what they say is a real danger in trusting AI for tasks like tutoring, lesson planning and the like. For instance, in lesson planning, large language models may not correctly predict what sequence of lessons might effectively build student knowledge. 

And given that a lot of the online instructional materials that developers likely train their models on are of poor quality, they might not produce lesson plans that are so great. 鈥淭he more complex the topic, the more risk there is that LLMs will produce plausible but factually incorrect materials,鈥� they say.

To head that possibility off, they say, educators should feed them examples of high-quality content to emulate.

When it comes to tutoring, educators should know, quite simply, that LLMs 鈥渄o not learn from their interactions with students,鈥� but from training data, the report notes. That means LLMs may not adapt to the specific needs of the students they鈥檙e tutoring.

The two reports come as Lake and Riley emerge as key figures in the AI-in-education debate. Already this summer they鈥檝e engaged in an open discussion about the best way to approach the topic, .

In a way, CRPE鈥檚 report can be seen as both a response to the hazards that Riley and Bruno point out 鈥� and a call to action for educators and policymakers who want to exert more control over how AI actually develops. Riley and Bruno offer short-term advice and guidance for those who want to dig into how generative AI actually works, while CRPE lays out a larger strategic vision.

A key takeaway from CRPE鈥檚 April convening, Lake said, was that the 60 or so experts gathered there didn鈥檛 represent all the views needed to make coherent policy. 鈥淭here was a really strong feeling that we need to broaden this conversation out into communities: to civil rights leaders, to parents, to students.鈥�

The lone student who attended, Irhum Shafkat, a senior, told the group that growing up in Bangladesh, his educational experiences were limited. But access to , which has since invested heavily in AI, helped bolster his skills and develop an interest in math. 鈥淚t changed my life,鈥� he told the group. 鈥淭he promise of technology is that we can make learning not a chance event,鈥� he told them. 鈥淲e could create a world where everybody can rise up as high as their skills should have been.鈥� 

Lake said Shafkat鈥檚 perspective was important. 鈥淚 think it really struck all of us how essential it is to let young people lead right now: Have them tell us what they need. Have them tell us what they’re learning, what they want.鈥�

The CRPE report urges everyone from teachers to philanthropists and governors to focus on emerging problem-solving tools that work well enough to be adopted widely. Those could include better translation and text-to-voice support for English learners, better feedback for students and summaries of research for educators, for instance. In other words, practical applications.

Or as one convening participant advised, 鈥淒on鈥檛 use it for sexy things.鈥�

鈥淭he more the children know you and trust you, the more they’re willing to engage in what you’re trying to teach them,鈥� said Susana Aguilar, one of 鈥檚 鈥渓iteracy liberators.鈥� 

The evaluation, from the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University, calls community members 鈥渦ntapped pools of talent鈥� in the effort to improve student achievement.

Oakland Unified鈥檚 model, said researcher and lead author Ashley Jochim, also has broader implications for how schools teach basic skills in reading and math. For too long, she said, one teacher has been responsible for modifying lessons to meet the needs of 25 or more students. 

鈥淭his model is clearly failing students and puts extraordinary demands on educators, especially coming out of the pandemic,鈥� she said. 鈥淥akland’s tutoring model shows what’s possible when we create the conditions needed to individualize instruction based on students’ learning needs.鈥�

鈥楬ow far could they go?鈥� 

The Oakland REACH to improve literacy instruction before the pandemic and joined with the local NAACP to push the district to adopt a research-based reading program.

The group criticized the quality of remote learning during COVID. But then it created its own online to focus on structured reading skills and saw promising results. After five weeks of virtual summer learning, some as much as they would from two months of in-person reading instruction, data showed. 

鈥淲e saw these big gains. You can’t ignore that,鈥� said Lakisha Young, the organization鈥檚 CEO. 鈥淲e had to ask, 鈥榃hat does this look like for a paraprofessional who is appropriately trained, trusted and coached? How far could they go?鈥� 鈥�

The group expanded to serve students during the school year, and last year, received a significant boost from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who donated $3 million to the organization. Its work, and its , has evolved, Young said, from 鈥渄emanding to building.鈥�

In statement to 麻豆精品, a district spokesman said its literacy efforts 鈥渉ave only been amplified and supported by partnering with a dedicated organization such as The Oakland REACH.鈥�

As a bridge between the district and the predominantly Black and Hispanic community it serves, The Oakland REACH played a key role in finding a diverse mix of tutors that included a retired educator, a former security guard and several stay-at-home moms. 

鈥淚t’s personal to me because my daughter had to go through the process of long-distance learning,鈥� Aguilar said in released with the report. 鈥淚 completely relate to all the challenges that parents had.鈥�

The prospective tutors completed an eight-week fellowship in which , a nonprofit trainer, taught them how to implement the district鈥檚 . But their preparation 鈥� the topic of a  鈥� was carefully designed to address the challenges facing Black, Hispanic and lower-income job candidates who are juggling work and family life. The sessions included child care, meals, transportation and a $1,675 stipend.

The fellowship also gave tutors space to discuss personal experiences with literacy instruction 鈥� their own and their children鈥檚.

鈥淭heir personal struggles,鈥� according to the paper, 鈥渄eepened their sense of commitment to students鈥� literacy needs.鈥� 

In total, The Oakland REACH recruited 46 parents and other community members to tutor small groups of K-2 students who were reading below grade level. In a survey, about a third of the tutors said they felt somewhat or very unprepared to teach young children when they started, but grew more skilled with the help of ongoing coaching from FluentSeeds.

Aguilar now works at Manzanita SEED Elementary School, where her daughter Aliah is in fourth grade. She described the school, which has a mostly low-income Black, Hispanic and Asian student population, as a 鈥渕elting pot.鈥�

“When you’re serving underprivileged communities,鈥� she said, 鈥渒ids are more receptive if they see people who look like them.鈥� 

Uneven results, 鈥榖udget challenges鈥� 

The program has made its greatest impact in kindergarten. From fall 2022 to spring 2023, tutored students gained nearly a full extra year of learning on the widely used iReady assessment, compared to those who did not receive tutoring, according to the report. But there was little to no difference in outcomes between tutored and non-tutored students in first and second grade.

Those results are not unique to Oakland. Another recent study on a virtual early literacy tutoring model called OnYourMark found minimal impact in second grade. The lack of growth could be due to a mismatch between tutoring and testing, said Susanna Loeb, a Stanford University professor who leads a nationwide tutoring research center and conducted the OnYourMark research.

If tutors are focusing on skills that an assessment doesn鈥檛 measure, 鈥渨e won鈥檛 see learning gains, even if they have them,鈥� she said. 

Overall, however, she described Oakland鈥檚 tutoring effort as a 鈥減roof point鈥� that shows how well-trained community members with credibility among families 鈥渃an meaningfully improve student learning.鈥�

But there鈥檚 still room for improvement. Many tutors were drawn to the position because they care about Oakland students. But the current $16- to $18-per-hour pay rate is a barrier to recruiting more tutors and keeping them, Jochim wrote. 

Aguilar, a single mother, said that while being a tutor is 鈥渕eaningful work,鈥� it doesn鈥檛 pay enough to replace the salary she used to make at her previous human resources job in  Silicon Valley. She makes ends meet by delivering groceries for Instacart and recruiting students for a local college.

The district鈥檚 鈥溾�� make the tutoring initiative a 鈥減romising, yet still-fragile set of reforms,鈥� Jochim wrote. In March, the board the positions, but rejected the plan. The district has relied on federal relief funds to help pay the tutors and is 鈥渨orking out funding for these important positions鈥� once those funds expire next year, a spokesman said.

The recent results should prompt Oakland to stop funding 鈥渓ess effective approaches鈥� to tutoring and invest in what works, Loeb said. 鈥淭his model is a good example of how community groups can provide these resources.鈥�

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies provide financial support to and 麻豆精品.

More than three years after the pandemic began, a crisis in teaching quality may be stalling academic recovery, new research shows. 

Faced with exhaustion, staffing shortages, and frequent student disruptions, many educators are using 鈥渙utdated and ineffective鈥� methods and content below grade level, according to a by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University, part of a research project done in conjunction with the RAND Corporation. 

Researchers analyzed interviews from 30 leaders, predominantly superintendents and chief academic officers, across five traditional districts and charter systems. 

To cover extra classes amid shortages, teachers lost prep periods and opportunities to collaborate with colleagues, the report found. Many went years without feedback from principal observations, and are managing higher rates of challenging student behavior. These challenges, and a tight labor market that leans on early career educators who don鈥檛 yet have the experience to weather them, are all contributing to the crisis.

As a result, educators reverted to older, more basic strategies. For instance, students were asked to work in groups without further direct instruction from the teacher; prompted to use screens or technology unnecessarily; and were frequently disengaged. 

鈥淛ust like we’re hearing about student learning loss, these leaders were seeing that their teachers were also experiencing teaching loss,鈥� said Lydia Rainey, who co-authored the last of four reports that explored how school leaders were responding to the pandemic with Paul Hill and Robin Lake.

Teaching quality is not solely responsible for the stall in academic progress 鈥� high dosage tutoring and technology supports, baked into recovery plans to help fill academic gaps, were ideals difficult to obtain in practice. 

It鈥檚 possible, too, that teachers鈥� classroom choices have been impacted by .  

鈥淲hen folks are stressed or depressed, or have not fully mastered what policy is asking them to do, they will revert to what they know. And what a lot of people know is how they went to school,鈥� Rainey said. 

Both researchers and the leaders they interviewed were shocked by how much the quality of instruction had suffered in the wake of the pandemic 鈥� something leaders didn鈥檛 anticipate when drafting recovery plans. 

鈥淣o one was thinking about this possibility, that teaching would suffer returning to school,鈥� Rainey added. 鈥淏eyond just these leaders, this was not in the national conversation about COVID recovery, either. This was a surprise to them and to us.鈥�

As one leader at a mid-sized, suburban district in the West summarized, there鈥檚 鈥渁 survival mode in teacher practice鈥� right now.  For an urban charter system leader on the East coast, 鈥淚t’s difficult to point to a model classroom at this point.鈥�

Staffing and mental health crises that put teachers under daily duress also strained efforts to boost instruction quality. Leaders knew teachers 鈥渨ere 鈥榚xhausted,鈥� and they worried about asking them to do more,鈥� according to the report.

Beyond the classroom, a compounding challenge is making accelerated learning a nearly impossible task: ambitious school district recovery plans have gone unrealized.

鈥淭utoring has been difficult, retention bonuses were ineffective, technology tools that they purchased didn鈥檛 work exactly as hoped,鈥� said Rainey.

Still, teachers were tasked with bringing pandemic learners back on track, without planned support from key interventions like quality high-dosage tutoring. 

In the 2022-23 school year, leaders diverted time and resources away from tutoring or other student interventions in order to rebuild teachers鈥� core skills.

The response, because resources are limited, 鈥渕eans there are few, if any, of the extra supports that research suggests will help the students who need them most,鈥� the report stated. 

Researchers recommend that federal Title I funding become more flexible, so that schools can afford both to address learning and teaching loss, and encourage states to subsidize and evaluate high quality tutoring options. 

Principals could continue to ask teachers directly about what supports they need and provide regular feedback from classroom observations, Rainey said. 

They also suggested leaders leverage quality resources already in their communities, like bringing parents in to tutor as has, and consider creative ways to support students who may graduate with core gaps in knowledge, like gap year programs.  

While findings are not representative of all U.S. public schools, they do provide some explanation behind in academic performance. Systems represented in the report serve 6,000 to 40,000, predominantly students of color and large proportions of low-income students.

鈥淭hese five systems are showing that they can鈥檛 get out of this on their own,鈥� said Rainey. 鈥淭his is really an all-hands-on-deck moment.鈥�

鈥淥ur motivation for building outside of the system is because we saw our system crumbling in the midst of the pandemic,鈥� said Lakisha Young, founder and CEO of The Oakland Reach in California, which in the early months of the pandemic launched a virtual hub for students who lacked internet access. Now, the nonprofit is training Black and Hispanic parents to work as math and literacy tutors 鈥�  鈥渓iberators,鈥� they call them 鈥� to help students thrive in local schools. 

鈥淣ot only are we putting caring, committed people back into our communities,鈥� Young said, 鈥渢he system now has to re-engage with us in a different kind of power dynamic.鈥� 

As they look to build a movement, however, leaders are grappling with some thorny questions. Are they contributing to school segregation? And to what extent do they want to remain connected to the very public schools their families left?

Young was among the leaders and researchers featured in a Monday webinar hosted by the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a think tank studying the future of pods after most students have returned to traditional schools. The center鈥檚 showed that Blacks were more than twice as likely as whites to report that their children were happier in pods 鈥� 52% to 25% 鈥� and also that they had more trust in the educators leading them than they did teachers in public schools. 

The majority of Black children still attend traditional public schools 鈥� 85%, according to . But CRPE researchers wanted to see whether Black pods and microschools connected to broader trends, such as the increase in Black , the and the growth in legislation supporting such models.

Are such policies 鈥減aving the way for an explosion in self-determined alternatives to public schools?鈥� asked Jennifer Poon, a fellow with the nonprofit Center for Innovation in Education, which contributed to the research. 鈥淎nd if so, what would that mean for the families in Black pods and microschools? On the flip side, what would that mean for the majority of families who are still served by public schools?鈥�

Introducing a topic often debated in the first year of the pandemic, moderator Chris Stewart, CEO of Brightbeam, a nonprofit that focuses on improving educational opportunities, pitched another question to the panelists: Do pods and microschools contribute to ? 

Speakers rejected the idea. Janelle Woods, founder of the Black Mothers Forum in Phoenix, said Black students are already segregated within public schools because they are suspended and expelled at higher rates than white students.  

Maxine McKinney de Royston, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, formed a small pod for middle school students in cooperation with the Madison school district. She said 鈥渋t’s a particular form of gaslighting鈥� to blame Black parents for resegregating schools, which she chalked up to  predominantly white, middle class communities from urban school districts.

What 鈥榮chools aren鈥檛 delivering鈥�

While homeschool families are used to patching together a variety of learning settings and programs for their children, that is becoming increasingly true of public school parents as well, according to recent research from Tyton Partners, a consulting firm. Its demonstrated growing interest in what researchers described as 鈥渕ulti-site schooling.鈥�

Supplemental pods like those in Oakland are a part of that trend.

鈥淚n some cases, parents are looking actively and aggressively for something that schools aren鈥檛 delivering,鈥� said Adam Newman, managing partner at Tyton. 鈥淚t really increases opportunities and challenges for schools to be more creative [and to think] about how they can bridge some of these gaps, particularly around issues of equity.鈥�

Historically, Black parents have always sought better opportunities for their children outside of mainstream schools, said Robert Harvey, former superintendent of a charter school network in East Harlem, New York, and now president of FoodCorps, a nonprofit that helps students access healthy food.

鈥淭he early pod school was the slave cabin,鈥� he said.

And four years before the pandemic, Woods founded the Black Mothers Forum in Phoenix to support parents whose children were disproportionately disciplined in public schools.

鈥淥ur children were being criminalized and demonized for behavior that was normal for their age group,鈥� she said. 

When schools shut down, the organization launched microschools to serve students whose parents had to work and couldn鈥檛 stay home to supervise remote learning. Parents who stayed with microschools are happier, she said, because their children aren鈥檛 being disciplined for minor infractions.

Economic options

Because they receive state education funds, the forum鈥檚 microschools are free for families. But Woods said foundations can help by supporting meal costs at microschools, which don鈥檛 qualify for the National School Lunch Program. It costs $6,000 to $7,000 per month to feed students, she said.

Pods and microschools serve as a 鈥渟afe harbor鈥� for some Black students, Stewart said. But in states where public funding isn鈥檛 available, many Black families can鈥檛 afford to form a pod or pay for a private microschool..

Harvey added that Congress opted not to increase the expanded child tax credit, which could have been an 鈥渆conomic option for 鈥� Black folks who live one check away from suffering and one check away from thriving.鈥� 

Young said she wants to see more microschools, like those in Arizona.But The Oakland Reach 鈥渆volved and adapted鈥� to offer enrichment and tutoring support rather than establish pods outside of the district.

鈥淔or better or for worse,鈥� she said, 鈥渕ost of our families are going to be in these public school systems.鈥�

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday announced 鈥� a partnership with five leading organizations to bring information and research about out-of-school-time programs together into one 鈥渃entralized, readily available location.鈥� The department will seek applications from an outside organization for a $3-$4 million contract in next year鈥檚 budget to run the initiative. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e at a pivotal point In America’s recovery,鈥� Cardona said during an event in Washington D.C. involving students, education officials and advocates. 鈥淚f we can reopen school during a pandemic, we can make sure students have access to quality programs.鈥�

The event coincided with National Summer Learning Week, but Cardona didn鈥檛 offer specific details on how districts already running this year鈥檚 summer programs can benefit.

Coming a week after Cardona joined with White House officials to announce a new effort to recruit 250,000 , the announcement is the latest from the administration to emphasize urgency in addressing learning loss and students鈥� disconnection from school during the pandemic. According to the department鈥檚 release, the effort builds on two decades of funding for afterschool and summer learning programs in low-income schools through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants.The department seeks $1.3 billion in the fiscal year 2023 budget for 21st Century funding, an increase of $50 million over 2021 and 2022.

鈥淲e know that our young people have lost contact with friends, teachers and mentors over the past two years,鈥� Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, said in a statement. The organization is part of the effort, along with the Afterschool Alliance, the National Comprehensive Center, the National League of Cities and the National Summer Learning Association.

The new initiative can be helpful if it advises states how to use existing federal grant programs to pay for summer and afterschool when American Rescue Plan funding dries up, said Nicholas Munyan-Penney, a senior policy analyst at Education Reform Now. This week, the think tank released on how states are already using relief funds for summer school. 

Experts could also help states and districts evaluate which programs improve students鈥� academic performance and mental health outcomes so they can 鈥減hase out less effective programming,鈥� he said.

But Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a think tank that has tracked districts鈥� responses to the pandemic, said the additional funding seems small compared to the need to better understand what works. And it comes when the Institute for Education Sciences, the department鈥檚 research arm, already doesn鈥檛 have enough funding to meet the demand. 

鈥淚t feels a bit like a 鈥榝iddling while Rome burns鈥� moment for the feds,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur students are facing extraordinary needs. Now is the time for a serious and strategic commitment of resources from the federal government for research and development.鈥� 

The Center鈥檚 research also suggests districts are doing less this year, not more. Its showed a drop in districts planning summer programming, except for students with disabilities. And in June, the Afterschool Alliance released showing that just one in five afterschool providers has received relief funds.

Last summer, many districts also struggled to hire enough staff to meet the demand, despite pay incentives. And the Afterschool Alliance survey showed two-thirds of program leaders were worried they wouldn鈥檛 have enough staff this year. 

Even when districts plan to serve students with disabilities, they often end up cutting back. A Buffalo, New York-area district reduced for special education students because of staff shortages, and the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland shifted its program for about 175 students because of a lack of staff.

Some parents also question whether districts have done enough outside of the school year to move students back up to grade level. Alicia Aleman, who has three children in California鈥檚 Fresno Unified School District, enrolled them in last year鈥檚 summer program.

鈥淭hey offer programs for math or science, but they鈥檙e only making cookies. They鈥檙e watching movies,鈥� she said, adding that low-income families don鈥檛 have choices because they are working and 鈥渘eed someone to take care of the kids during the summer.鈥� 

This year, she tried to sign up for a program through the city, but 鈥渁ll the spots are taken by the time the flyers go to the community.鈥�

Fresno Unified, however, has significantly expanded summer programs with $40 million in state funding, boosting enrollment from about 4,000 at a limited number of sites last year to roughly 15,000 this year at every elementary school and middle school. The district is contracting with a range of nonprofit organizations and colleges to offer sports and arts camps, with tutoring built in. 

The funding 鈥渁llows us to remove historical barriers [like] making kids get on the bus and go across town,鈥� said Jeremy Ward, the district鈥檚 assistant superintendent for college and career readiness. 鈥淢y biggest fear is that we consider this work as a flash in the pan 鈥� we influse money for a year or two and then we pull back.鈥�

That鈥檚 how long it鈥檚 been since more than half the nation鈥檚 schools crossed into the pandemic era.

On March 16, 2020, districts in 27 states, encompassing almost 80,000 schools, closed their doors for the first long educational lockdown. Within nine days, the nation鈥檚 remaining districts followed suit.

Since then, schools have reopened, closed and reopened again. The effects have been immediate 鈥� students lost parents; teachers mourned fallen colleagues 鈥� and hopelessly abstract, as educators weighed 鈥�pandemic learning loss,鈥� the sometimes crude measure of COVID鈥檚 impact on students鈥� academic performance.

To mark what will soon stretch into a third spring of educational disruption, 麻豆精品 spoke with educators, parents, students and researchers about what Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University鈥檚 Edunomics Lab, called 鈥渁 seismic interruption to education unlike anything we鈥檝e ever seen.鈥� They talked movingly, often unsparingly, about their missteps and occasional triumphs, their moments of despair and fragile optimism for the future. [You can scan through our expanding archive of testimonials right here.]

As spring approaches, there are additional reasons to be hopeful. More children are being vaccinated. Mask mandates are lifting. But even if the pandemic recedes and a 鈥渘ew normal鈥� emerges, there are clear signs that the issues surfaced during this period will linger. COVID heightened inequities long baked into the American educational system. The social contract between parents and schools has frayed. Teachers are burning out.

鈥淭here are kind of two camps,鈥� said Beth Lehr, an assistant principal of Sahuarita High School, south of Tucson, Arizona. 鈥淭here’s the one camp of 鈥楾his too shall pass,鈥� and then there’s the other camp of 鈥榊eah, it’s going to pass, but I don’t know if I want to wait for it to.鈥欌��

But none of this was on anyone鈥檚 mind on March 16, 2020.

The World Health Organization had a pandemic only five days earlier. Two days after that, then-President Donald Trump called a . And in the Northshore School District, a system of 22,000 students northeast of Seattle, schools had already been closed for over a week. In late February, one of its schools shut for deep cleaning after an employee traveled out of the country with a family member who had become ill. The district鈥檚 closure offered a glimpse into what many thought would be a short-term disruption.

鈥業 realized it wasn鈥檛 science fiction鈥�

Susan Enfield, superintendent of Highline Public Schools in Washington: A very good friend of mine who works in the called me, end of February, and said, 鈥淚 think we’re going to close 鈥� and I think the rest of you won’t be far behind.鈥� I said, 鈥淣o way, there’s no way they’re going to close schools.鈥� I mean, I really was incredulous.

Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education: I was having brunch with my sister in Kirkland, Washington, when the news broke that there were multiple cases and deaths at the Life Care Center nursing home just a few miles away. My husband sent me a text telling me to get out of Kirkland right away, and everything felt ominous.

Marguerite Roza, Seattle-based director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University: My daughter and I were driving to go pick up some fish for dinner. In the car, they announced the governor’s order 鈥� it was with a bigger lockdown kind of order 鈥� and we walked into the fish market place, and the guy behind the counter goes, 鈥淗ave you heard anything yet?鈥� We were like, 鈥淵ep.鈥� And he goes, 鈥淲hat did he say?鈥� We said, 鈥淟ockdown.鈥� And he [grunts], 鈥淯hhhh.鈥� Already, the streets were pretty empty, and the first person we talked to was the guy packaging up our salmon.

Tony Sanders, superintendent, School District U-46, near Chicago: I was asked to serve on a statewide panel of superintendents 鈥� to provide guidance to school district leaders across the state. Our first meeting, held on Sunday, March 15, was attended by prominent legislators, state health officials, the deputy governor for education and state superintendent of schools. Hearing the projections of worst-case scenarios should we not 鈥渇latten the curve鈥� was surreal. At the conclusion of that meeting, where we worked to socially distance, but had no idea yet about the need to wear a mask, I made the four-hour journey home in complete silence and disbelief.

Michael Mulgrew, president, United Federation of Teachers, New York City: We started tracking this during the Christmas holiday. We had some teachers who were in China. We had them quarantine when they came back. I didn’t realize [things had changed] until March 16, the day after the New York City public schools closed. I was in my car driving around the city and I was shocked that the streets were empty. That’s when I realized it wasn’t science fiction. 

Bridgette Adu-Wadier: freshman, Northwestern University, graduate of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandra, Virginia: By the end of March, Gov. Ralph Northam basically announced that all the schools would be closed due to the pandemic for the rest of the school year. I watched the livestream, and I was texting my friends. One of them was actually really upset and crying about it, just because it was such a stressful situation to be in 鈥� like, things are never going to be the same again.

鈥榃e were completely unprepared鈥�

Parents, superintendents and others 鈥� many in a state of shock 鈥� had little time to plan as events unfolded at frightening speed.

Toni Rochelle Baker: family liaison for Oakland REACH, a parent advocacy organization, Walnut Creek, California: They gave us curfews in our city and then they told us to stock up for food. I don’t live my life like that. I’m a single mother. I go grocery shopping when I can. We get what we need, and now you’re telling me to stock up on food? That was scary. I didn’t have a deep freezer. I didn’t have extra money just laying around [to] go spend $300 on food. I didn’t have Wi-Fi at the time because I didn’t really need it. I have my phone, and now I need Wi-Fi for three people.

Maria Amado, family child care provider, Hartford, Connecticut, who opened her program for school-age children during remote learning: [Translated from Spanish] Educators, including myself, sewed masks for the children, and we looked for resources to support each other. Some gave fabric to make the masks, others the elastic. It may not have been in big ways, but they all contributed. And now I remember this and think, 鈥淲here did I find the time to make the masks?鈥� It was the adrenaline to survive, knowing this would protect me and I had to do it.

Tony Sanders: We needed to place emergency orders for Chromebooks and other devices. We had to completely transform our approach to food service so that by March 17 we were feeding our students and community at food pickup locations throughout the district. There were decisions that had to be made that I would never have thought of. We had to determine how we would ensure employees would continue to be paid. During the first days of the pandemic, I recall sitting alone in my office. The view from my window was a large parking lot with one vehicle.

Sherrice Dorsey-Smith, deputy director of programs, planning and grants, San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families: I had to figure out how we were going to open what we called emergency child and youth centers. These were spaces for essential workers to leave their children for the day while they were at work. Child care centers were closed, schools were closed, but some people needed or were required to continue working. They needed a safe place for their children during the day. I had to figure out how to get breakfast, lunch and snacks to all the sites. I remember working through the weekend nonstop, literally 48 hours.

Michael Mulgrew: It was a mad scramble to get everyone trained quickly how to get their classrooms up. How do we teach parents how to help their kids? It was non-stop. It was hundreds of decisions every day. Even though everything was closed, we were still moving stuff literally, like laptops and iPads and different things, trying to get them to our members鈥� houses so they had something to work off. [Former] Mayor [Bill de Blasio] had resolved never to close the schools, so he would not allow the Department of Ed to put any contingency plans in place. On the Friday before the schools closed, at 3 p.m., the mayor would be banging on the table saying he was going to keep the schools open. And that Sunday afternoon he closed the schools. So we were completely unprepared.

School, interrupted

As the deadline for lifting lockdown kept slipping away, some took longer to grasp the new reality: Life wouldn’t be returning to normal anytime soon.

Mariela Garcia: freshman at the University of Houston, graduate of Eastwood Academy High School in Houston: It was during spring break when we ended up having two weeks instead of one. And two weeks turned into three. This went on for a couple of weeks before we noticed that we weren鈥檛 going to go back to school. Stores started closing down, schools started closing, many things started closing because everyone was scared. That鈥檚 when I noticed that this was becoming very serious.

Dale Chu, senior visiting fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute: I realized everything had changed 鈥� on May 10, 2020. How do I remember the date? My at-the-time 5-year-old daughter 鈥� after nearly two months on Zoom 鈥� drew a picture of her class for me. Seeing Kellan鈥檚 classmates through her eyes on a Zoom grid really hit things home for me.

Ricardo Miguel Martinez, president, Latino Parents for Public Schools, Atlanta: I had people worried about getting kicked out, evicted, lights being turned off, not having groceries. These are people who weren’t making excuses. The people who are fighting masks and stuff, they have a choice to either follow the data or not follow the data. God bless them in their fight. But these people didn’t have a choice. They got thrown into the chicken factories and died. They got thrown into manufacturing and died so that we could have chicken at the grocery store.

Mourning the lost

Some felt the pandemic鈥檚 effects up close: sick parents, dead teachers. This month, the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. , with an estimated 2,200 of them educators. Many of the effects have been harder to measure, but are certain to leave lasting damage. Recent four out of five secondary school principals experienced 鈥渇requent job-related stress鈥� last year, and educator surveys show over students鈥� mental health, including anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

Susan Enfield: We lost two middle school students to suicide early in the pandemic. We lost staff members.

Michael Mulgrew: I had to read the names of our members who passed away. I had to make the phone calls to those families. We lost a lot of members, and I always think that if we could have closed earlier, how many more would we not have lost.

Shawnie Bennett, a COVID-19 investigator, Oakland, California: I lost my brother [from COVID] in May of 2020. He was only 32. As a family, when we would gather to try and go see him or just sit outside the hospital window. We were afraid to touch each other, so it was hard to comfort each other. [My son] came home [from college] for Christmas, and he saw me so weak and broken. He had always seen a very strong Black woman as a mother. I was gone, emotionally wrecked, mentally, physically, and it broke him down to the point that he did not want to return to school. He’s in Atlanta now, got an apartment and he’s just trying to figure life out. He was very close to my brother. That loss, on top of what he physically saw me go through, was detrimental for him.

David Brown, principal, Hillcrest Heights Elementary, Prince George鈥檚 County, Maryland: Family vacations, going out to eat, visiting family 鈥� I think all of those things disappearing created a milieu where it was tough to manage. And when you’re in charge of leading a large group of individuals, how do you help and support them? How do you keep your teachers upbeat? Because the mental health of every adult who receives a paycheck from our county impacts the mental health and the wellness of children who are just simply here to learn. I remember there was discussion that we’ll be able to eat and enjoy ourselves come the 4th of July, and then that didn’t happen. You’re holding out hope that it’s going away, but it’s not, and [you鈥檙e] trying to remain that positive, invigorating leader that the principal has to be.

Bridgette Adu-Wadier: Graduation was a really tough time. I don’t remember enjoying it, honestly. Just collectively, it was like a year or so of the pandemic, and then also, my family was impacted a lot financially, which was stressful. I was basically helping my two younger brothers through virtual school for the whole year. I had a lot more family responsibilities, and it took a toll on me mentally. I had trouble balancing things, especially with Zoom class sessions while my brothers needed help or were playing loudly in the other room. I relied on music and audiobooks as a form of escape.

Ashiley Lee, tech and operations coordinator, Para Los Ni帽os, a Los Angeles charter school, where last year she taught seventh-grade history: I remember being in a class full of blank screens, because we no longer required cameras on, and then after that, putting my grades in for the semester and realizing just how low they were. I was trying to brainstorm with my team: What is something, anything, we can do to encourage our students to at least get the one assignment we post a week in by the end of the semester? My kids, it was so funny, we started a joke where I would call on a student to answer a question and they wouldn’t be there 鈥� kind of a ghost in the call. And the kids would comment in the chat, 鈥淕hostbuster! Ms. Lee caught him.”

Marguerite Roza: The hardest part was when it looked like there was no reopening school. This was November of 2020. The governor had established these metrics by which you could open schools, and as far out as the modelers had modeled, it was never going to reopen. My then-high school daughter [a cross-country runner] was getting more and more discouraged. You could just see it was really not healthy for her, just to be home all alone every day. And you, as a parent, start to feel desperate. I used to listen to press conferences constantly. You could see that there wasn’t going to be any movement. I was very worried about her. The sports season had come and gone. School was online. I think that was probably the darkest time, which coincides in Seattle with it being really dark, [at] like 3:45. 

Mariela Garcia: Hundreds and thousands of people were dying because of COVID, and I was scared. I remember I had no interactions with the outside world for 鈥� I kid you not 鈥� at least three months straight. My family just did not want to leave our home. At the time, we had to adjust to online school. I had no Wi-Fi or laptop at the time, so it was hard to be in class and even submit assignments from my phone. It was definitely a very hard time, especially when family members started to get COVID.

Toni Baker: I had two kids at the table with computers doing virtual learning and I had no idea what that meant. They told us to sign on to some Zoom that I’ve never heard of before. I’m in love with my kids, but my kids were on my last nerves during the pandemic. Those four walls just weren’t enough.

Couch sitting, watching 鈥楩riends鈥�

The monotony of being stuck at home sparked new coping strategies: Cooking, at-home workouts, walking the dog 鈥� and of course . Some took long couch breaks. Others became entrepreneurs. Mariela Garcia started baking and ran a business from a local farmer鈥檚 market.

Mariela Garcia: My family actually bought the DVD set of 鈥淔riends鈥� and we just watched 鈥淔riends鈥� over and over and over. We’ve already seen each episode at least 10 times. We just keep it playing throughout the whole day because we don’t have any Wi-Fi or anything at home. I would not have started my business if it wasn’t for being in quarantine. I had so much more free time. I hate being that person, but the first time I ever tried my empanadas, they came out great, and I have not changed anything. 

Susan Enfield: A group of female superintendents from around the country 鈥� we refer to ourselves as 鈥渟ister supes鈥� 鈥� had a standing Sunday afternoon Zoom where we would just check in and get together. In the early months, that proved to be incredibly helpful, just remembering that we weren’t alone. Going for walks with my husband and also, frankly, allowing myself to feel pain and to grieve. I think as leaders we do need to inspire hope and let people know it’s going to be OK and be strong, but we also have to balance that strength and courage with vulnerability. There were weekends where I didn’t get off the couch. I’ve been pretty honest about that in conversations with others. I said to someone once, 鈥淚f one more person says, 鈥榊ou got this,鈥� I’m gonna smack 鈥榚m.鈥� A year and a half ago, I didn’t 鈥済ot this,鈥� and people were just lying. I’m sorry, they were just lying. I don’t think we do ourselves or our colleagues or anyone any service by faking it.

Beth Lehr, assistant principal, Sahuarita High School, Sahuarita, Arizona: I do not check my email at all on the weekends.

Toni Baker: I had a support system. They gave us vouchers for food. They gave my kids free computers. They gave us Wi-Fi. They had these teachers 鈥� I don’t even know where they found these beautiful teachers with these loving hearts for these kids. There was a teacher who had a grandma鈥檚 touch and a mom’s heart, and she was just so warm. This is through a computer. I’ve never met this woman to this day in real life. I had the community of Oakland REACH behind me. I wouldn’t have made it without them.

David Brown: When we were in person, I had 鈥渓unch bunches鈥� where I would eat lunch with the kids. So I went back to eating lunch virtually with the kids, and I found that really gave me a lot of positive energy. You find that you are equally, if not more, excited to see them in this virtual world than they are to see you. So it’s the, 鈥淗ey, Mr. Brown.鈥� It’s the big smile. It’s the camera coming on. It’s the home environment. It’s the parents waving in the background. I think all of that does a good amount to lift your spirits.

鈥楾he system itself is not changing鈥�

Confusing guidance and vitriolic debate left many parents feeling lost. They watched helplessly as their children disengaged from learning, but also worried that their kids would get sick if they returned to school. School leaders were caught in what felt like a non-stop, high-volume war of words with unions, parents and state officials. 

Pedro Martinez, CEO, Chicago Public Schools; former superintendent, San Antonio Independent School District: Texas did not prioritize teachers [for vaccines] in the first round, but they were pushing hard and threatening districts about keeping schools open. Meanwhile, the positivity rate, I remember in San Antonio, was over 21 percent. The death rate was five times higher in my district than it was in the more affluent parts of the county. I just remember the frustration. You want these things, but yet you’re not providing vaccines to my staff, who actually want to keep the schools open. 

Michael Mulgrew: The city doctors are telling us it’s going to be nothing but a cold and the schools could remain open. The kids are going to be fine. They’re not going to get it, and we’ll create herd immunity, and we’ll be safer faster than everybody else. Literally, that’s the conversation I was having with the mayor and his doctors. Our doctors are telling us the absolute opposite. They鈥檙e saying, 鈥淟isten, children might not be getting this at this point in time, but this is a serious virus and people are going to die.鈥� The big conflict was that first one. 

Marguerite Roza: I’m a data person. I really study the numbers, and I didn’t understand how a lot of people were driven by fear and couldn’t recognize what I was seeing. [They鈥檙e saying], 鈥淵our child could die,鈥� and I was like, 鈥淲ell, not really. The numbers here say, really, your child isn鈥檛 going to die. I promise you, driving to Grandma鈥檚 is more dangerous for your kid than this thing.鈥� You’re having two different conversations if you’re talking about numbers and you’re talking about fear. The fear was so dominant that the numbers people probably felt, out of respect, we should step back and be quiet. I don’t want to tell somebody who’s having a panic attack, 鈥淵ou’re overreacting.鈥� Looking back on it, I think that I probably kept my real views about the data quieter than I should have. I thought people were going to bounce out of it.

Mariela Garcia: We were able to pick whether to go back in person or stay online. I definitely wanted to go back. I missed my friends. I missed having class with a teacher right in front of me. My parents thought it was not a good idea. I was conflicted in making a decision, but for the good of my family, I decided to stay online for my whole senior year. That also meant no sports. I was so heartbroken because sports meant everything to me. I was unable to play my senior year. I had already claimed the captain position in my previous year playing, and I was looking forward to a great season. 

Parent power

The pandemic has dramatically changed parents鈥� relationships with their public schools, prompting some to seek new options and others to demand more from the schools their children attend. 鈥淚 think the pandemic has created some sort of awakening in parents that we’ve not seen before,鈥� Roza said. 鈥淚 don’t think there’s any putting that genie back in the bottle.鈥� 

Wendy Neal, executive director of My Child My Voice, a Houston-based advocacy group: I’m not saying the teachers are bad, I’m just saying that the parents were finding creative ways of being more of a teacher to their own child. Some parents were like, 鈥淲ell, if you’re not going to help my child, I’m pulling my kid out of your school. Either I’m going to homeschool, go to an education pod or go to a private school.鈥� Some of these parents really didn’t believe in charter schools either, and then all of a sudden, they’re putting their kid in a virtual charter school.

Marguerite Roza: In March of 2021, [my daughter’s school] finally got around to having their cross-country season outside, and they banned all parents from coming. They run three miles. They’re outside. It just got to the point where it was eye roll upon eye roll. A lot of parents showed up anyway, ’cause how are you going to keep parents off of a three-mile course, right? And we’re popping out of the bushes waving at each other. [It had been] a year, and we knew better. I should have marched out and said, “The evidence suggests we’re fine here,” but they were going to ban you and ban your team if you weren’t cooperating.

Sonya Thomas, executive director, Nashville PROPEL, a parent advocacy group: You would think that a pandemic would bring about a sense of urgency. We鈥檙e talking about decades of educational inequities, and what I’m seeing is that the system itself is not changing. It has actually grown richer in money. It has grown more savvy in messaging. And it’s hurtful. I鈥檝e got tears coming down my face now. I just had a friend who died this weekend. He couldn’t read. And I have to ask myself, 鈥淲hat has changed?鈥� 

Toni Baker: When this school year came around, the COVID was just everywhere. The previous year, they did the COVID tests, they did the sanitizer, they did the masks, they did all these precautions. And when school started back the next semester, all of that went out the window. I let it slide the first two days of school, but by the third day, I’m like, 鈥淲hat’s going on? Where are the masks? Where is this? Where is that? We’re still in this stuff, and it’s worse now.鈥� I had to make an executive decision as a parent. My kid鈥檚 class got exposed and I didn’t like the safety of it. I was worrying, like I had knots in my stomach. I had to remove my children from there. [My son鈥檚] class went on quarantine for a week and then I just never took them back.

Beth Lehr: I have one teacher. This is her ninth year. She has already resigned for next year. She said, 鈥淚 can’t do this anymore. I dread coming to work every day.鈥� She goes, 鈥淵ou know, I love the day-to-day of being in front of our kids. The second I have to open my email or grade their assignments is when I realize why I resigned.鈥� The emails. The constant onslaught of the very vocal unhappy parents. We have some amazing families, but we don’t hear the 鈥淭hank yous鈥� as often as we hear the 鈥淵ou sucks.鈥�

Lost learning

Educators love jargon. It鈥檚 not surprising, then, that lockdown introduced new terms like “COVID slide鈥� and 鈥減andemic learning loss鈥� to describe the academic fallout students experienced from months of remote learning. In June 2020, researchers at nonprofit assessment group NWEA were among the first to predict the extent of the chaos. The return to in-person learning helped. But as recently as December, from McKinsey & Co. showed that academic recovery has been uneven and gaps between Black and white students have widened. Educators also report challenges with student behavior, which many to the lack of socialization during remote learning.

Beth Lehr: The learning loss is going to be there. There’s going to be a new norm, but trying to jam more and more and more down their throats is not helping. Continuing to create these high-stakes environments and making kids feel less than because of something that was totally out of their control is not helping. Meeting kids where they are is. Why do they have to learn all these things, right? They have to learn it to be successful in the future. Great, what does that success look like? How are we redefining success, because honestly, right now, for some of these kids, success is getting out of bed and showing up.

Mariela Garcia: I’ve always struggled in math, and since it was online I feel like I wasn’t really learning as much as I could. When I got to college, I took trigonometry, and it was difficult. I had to get a tutor or stay after school. I had to study more on my own time. I had to take a test in person for the first time in two years. I struggled the first couple weeks, but once I got help and once I started studying, it’s just like riding a bike.

Ricardo Martinez: Seems like we’ve already stopped talking about it. A lot of people refuse to acknowledge it. They’re trying to change the conversation to CRT [critical race theory], anti-CRT. Let’s not worry about what’s not really happening and worry about what’s actually happening. Kids are getting more aggressive. They’ve lost social skills. We’ve lost a lot of learning, and I don’t think that the parents have been able to help because we barely know how to do what they’re asking us to do. I hope that we’re talking about learning loss until we catch back up, which should be in a few years.

Beth Lehr: [Students are experiencing an] emotional stuntedness, for lack of a better term. Freshmen are notoriously immature, but what we’re used to seeing as freshman behavior isn鈥檛 even freshman behavior. The 鈥�devious licks鈥� stuff [a TikTok challenge that included school property damage] 鈥� that was 100 percent only freshman. Oh my God, the soap dispensers were destroyed over and over and over again. We had to replace sinks. We had to replace toilets 鈥� not because they were stolen, but because they were destroyed. The older students were super-annoyed by the freshman because then we ended up having to lock our bathrooms during lunch. We’ve also had an increase in sexual infractions 鈥� not necessarily assaults. It’s consensual, but it鈥檚 much more frequent on our campus this year. This is my seventh year as assistant principal, and this year, hands down, we have had more issues with kids getting caught in positions that high schoolers should not be in.

Hosea Born, art and robotics teacher at Hope Academy of Public Service, Hope, Arkansas: We will be talking about it as long as there is the overwhelming reliance on standardized testing. The pandemic has shown us that adaptability is key, yet we are still measuring our students on how well they can take a test. Teaching a non-tested subject has allowed me to see the flexibility and amazing ways that students learn when there isn鈥檛 a looming requirement hanging over their heads. Some of my students haven鈥檛 had an art class since the start of the pandemic, but it is key for students to be able to create, and when given the opportunity, they have jumped right back in, and to me, are exceeding all expectations. 

Pedro Martinez: Last year, our district had 100,000 students who were disengaged, including seniors who would have dropped out. We got the majority of seniors to graduate. Same thing happened in San Antonio. What I heard from teachers directly was, 鈥淭hese kids are coming every day. These are the same students who we couldn’t get to engage in remote. They’re coming every single day.鈥� I saw the first-quarter grades. There are still gaps, but significant improvements over the remote year, and specifically with our kids of poverty and kids of color. That gives me a lot of hope. When we have the children in our schools, they actually do perform better.

Robin Lake: I think we will grapple with [learning loss] for as long as the COVID generation is alive. We鈥檒l be looking at the immediate impacts for probably a decade, but there are sure to be lasting effects on individuals and on the economy for many decades unless we can change the trajectory of our response. The question is how we鈥檒l be talking about it. Will the story be that we failed this generation of children, or will it be that we pulled together and found solutions for this generation, and designed a better education system for future generations?

A 鈥榝ive-alarm crisis鈥� for teachers

As they looked back, some recalled moments of doubt about perservering. According to from the National Education Association, the nation鈥檚 largest teachers union, more than half of teachers intend to leave the profession sooner than they originally planned. While some are dubious about 鈥�the Big Quit,鈥� NEA President Becky Pringle called teacher burnout and staff shortages a 鈥渇ive-alarm crisis.鈥�

Michael Mulgrew: I think most people in this profession thought of quitting throughout this thing. There were some really really tough times. The only way out of this is to go through it.

Susan Enfield: I don’t think I ever thought of quitting. There were moments where I thought I don’t know if I can do this, but that’s different than quitting. I never just was like, 鈥淚’m out of here,鈥� and my was not a response to the pandemic. I’m ready for a fresh challenge and Highline is ready for a fresh leader.

Beth Lehr: I’m so torn. I’ve applied for a principal position within the district, but at the same time I’m like, 鈥淲hy? Why did I just do that? What am I thinking?鈥� I haven’t yet gotten to the point where the stuff that I dislike about my job has outweighed the stuff that I like about it, but it鈥檚 hit or miss on a daily basis. 

鈥業 don鈥檛 use the term normal anymore鈥�

Like a sequel to a bad horror movie, the Omicron variant arrived just as educators and families thought they鈥檇 made it through the worst of the crisis. The sparked a spike in cases, resulting in further school closures and quarantines. But now, with increasing vaccination rates and a recent decline in positive cases, some states are lifting mask mandates. The nation鈥檚 three largest districts aren鈥檛 ready to let masks go, but some are starting to use a word they haven鈥檛 uttered in a while: hope.

Pedro Martinez: We’re now at a point where cases have been very steadily declining. Our city is now close to an over-70 percent vaccination rate. There are still gaps within my district, but I’m seeing good momentum, especially with 5- to 11-year-olds. We’re close to maybe half of our district that should be fully vaccinated within the next couple weeks. Over 90 percent of my staff are fully vaccinated. So it really gives me hope that we’re on the other side of this. There’s a chance that by springtime we could be talking about not wearing masks.

Susan Enfield: I am hopeful that in the coming weeks and months we are going to collectively adapt to a way of living, a way of working, that will feel more familiar to what we knew prior to the pandemic. I don’t use the term 鈥渘ormal鈥� anymore. I think entering that phase gives me hope.

Michael Mulgrew: The buildings built after the last pandemic have these really big windows. They actually were built that way so that you could open them to keep ventilation in case there was another pandemic. That literally became part of the code for schools after the pandemic of 1918. For a period of time last year, the teachers kept opening up the windows the whole way, and it’s like 7 degrees out. So, we had to produce this video for all the teachers about how you only have to open like half the windows about 3 inches each and you’ll be fine. One of the first cold days when we got back last month, I was in a school, and one of the teachers had windows open all the way. And I’m looking at the windows, and she touched my arm and she goes, 鈥淚 know I don’t have to open it that much, but my team teacher for 20 years died of COVID a year ago.鈥� I said, 鈥淵ou keep that window open any way you want.鈥�

Shawnie Bennett: I don’t think I will ever take off my mask.

Mariela Garcia: I’ve always been the type of person to talk to anybody, but it was different seeing people that I’ve never met before [at the University of Houston]. People have been socially awkward, and it’s hard to start a conversation. With my personality, I’m a happy person and I talk to anyone. So I鈥檓 going up to someone [last fall] like, 鈥淗i, nice to meet you,鈥� and they’re just like, 鈥淲hoa, 6 feet apart.鈥�

Beth Lehr: It’s so hard to see the end, and it鈥檚 so overwhelming. What I’ve heard more this year from my teachers than anything is, 鈥淲e thought that last year was hard. This year is 10 times harder.鈥� We鈥檝e had very, very low turnover. I do not foresee that being the case next year. There are kind of two camps. There’s the one camp of 鈥淭his too shall pass,鈥� and then there’s the other camp of 鈥淵eah, it’s going to pass, but I don’t know if I want to wait for it to.鈥�

鈥楢 true hunger for doing things differently鈥�

Two years of scrambling and false starts has offered ample opportunity to think about what has 鈥� and perhaps more to the point, what hasn鈥檛 鈥� worked for schools. If there鈥檚 another pandemic 鈥� and scientists say there undoubtedly , and soon 鈥� will anything change?

Christopher Nellum, executive director, Education Trust West: I think we now appreciate mental health in a different way. The past two years have been traumatic. We have been scared, sick, overworked, unemployed. We have missed vital human connection and even lost loved ones. We have witnessed a surge in racially motivated hate crimes and a national reckoning over police brutality toward Black and brown Americans. It鈥檚 OK to be struggling to feel OK in the face of all of that. It鈥檚 OK to talk about it. And we all deserve access to the resources we need to address it. 

Sonya Thomas: Parent engagement is not what we want. When you engage us, what you’re doing is bringing your own agenda and you’re saying, 鈥淭his is what we’re going to do, so get with the program.鈥� That’s what engagement means, right? 鈥淚’m bringing something to you, this is what you’re gonna get and you gotta just walk in line with it.鈥� I think what they’re learning is that we’re not going anywhere and we want parent partnership. We don’t want to be engaged. Throw that in the trash. That has never gotten anything for our children. What we want is true partnership. We want school districts to partner with us, intentionally take our feedback and use it. That builds trust. It鈥檚 not a talking point or a PR move. 

Dale Chu: If anything, we鈥檝e learned what doesn鈥檛 work. For example, asynchronous learning [without live teaching ] 鈥� homework, study hall 鈥� stunk. We also learned that huge doses of it left millions of students isolated from their peers, the toll from which we鈥檙e just starting to come to grips with.

Robin Lake: I hear a true hunger for doing things differently. People are saying, 鈥淵ou know, the way we ask teachers to teach alone in a classroom, trying to be expert in all things and serve vastly different needs, is crazy.鈥� I believe there is a powerful confluence of parents, educators and civic leaders who know things have to change and are determined to make that happen.

Michael Mulgrew: We never said [remote learning] was going to be the be-all-and-end-all. It was always a way for us to keep in contact, to keep our students engaged. Through the end of that [2019-20] school year, it really was more of a lifeline between teachers and students and their families. We thought it should have been more of a centralized process, but [the department] figured it’s better off to just let every teacher do their own thing. The majority of students really do regress in a remote setting. There was a small percentage of students who actually thrived in remote, so that says there’s something there we have to look at. If there’s a subset of children who were not doing well when they were going to school 鈥� and there’s all sorts of different reasons for that 鈥� who all of a sudden did really well in a remote setting, we have to look at this going into the future.

Marguerite Roza: We have seen districts jump in and be nimble in a way that we never thought districts could be nimble before. People always say, 鈥淵ou know, turning a district around is like turning an aircraft carrier.鈥� I’m like, an aircraft carrier turns around in a day. Why is everybody using that as something that’s slow? I was in the military. [From 1988 to 1992, Roza served at the Navy Nuclear Power School in Orlando.] Aircraft carriers are pretty maneuverable. There are thousands and thousands of people on an aircraft carrier, and that thing could spin around and change direction with the wind. I do think that we had thought districts couldn’t adjust, and many of them did.

Beth Lehr: I’ve had a lot of teachers really rethink their philosophies 鈥� some of my most dyed-in-the-wool [teachers]. This has truly opened their eyes when they’ve seen the disparities. Not everybody’s home looks the same. When we first started doing all of the remote, we had a lot of really serious conversations about requiring cameras to be on or not. A lot of our teachers were like, well, 鈥淲hy wouldn’t the camera be on?鈥� They never took into account that there might be 10 people in a two-bedroom house. There might be somebody being slapped, hit, cut, whatever while they’re there. They might be embarrassed because they’re doing your class from their car in the McDonald’s parking lot.

鈥楽o long and so short鈥�

Seven hundred days have flown by for some and painfully dragged on for others. For many, it鈥檚 been a bit of both. 

Michael Mulgrew: It feels like 7,000 days.

Laurie Corizzo, counselor, Ridge Ranch School, Paramus, New Jersey: This whole pandemic, the virus, the water cooler conversations are never-ending. If someone isn’t discussing a vaccine, a booster, the virus, who has it, who had it, who passed, it seems that conversations are stagnant. My point is, it encompasses every single aspect of our lives. It is as if there were some sort of imaginary force field that prevents any semblance of any other conversation to happen anywhere on the planet. In a word, it is quite exhausting.

Christopher Nellum: I hope that 700 days in, we are seeing our education systems for what they are and what they have been for a long, long time: profoundly inequitable.

Susan Enfield: I didn’t know that 700 days could both seem so long and so short simultaneously. I think the last couple of years have felt like a lifetime in and of themselves, and yet, at the same time, it feels like it’s gone by in a flash.

Marguerite Roza: I mean, wow 鈥� what a seismic interruption to education unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Normally, we would say a 1 percent change in enrollment from one year to the next is earth-shattering to finance. We鈥檙e seeing 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 percent enrollment shifts in some districts. And some of those are large districts. Those kinds of things are going to change the structure of education forever.

Lead Image: Rippowam Middle School principal Matthew Laskowski looks on from a socially distanced cafeteria in September 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. (John Moore / Getty Images)